The Level 10 team is set to celebrate the topping out of the the 2747 Park project on Thursday, October 5th. Designed by the Jay Paul Company, this development is steps from Caltrain in Palo Alto, California. 2747 Park provides a future-forward workplace designed for Silicon Valley’s innovative workforce. Terra-Petra has been invited to attend the event having designed the vapor intrusion mitigation system for the site. Level 10 will also have the topping out beam available for signatures onsite beginning October 3rd.

Re-Imagining the Past: The original 1956 Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy Auditorium was a multi-functional Cafa-Gym-atorium. While it provided much needed flexibility, hosting untold numbers of disparate functions, it did not adequately accommodate any one activity. The time had come to recreate the venue to exclusively nurture and showcase the visual and performing arts. Terra-Petra was brought into this project to provide environmental engineering consulting expertise.

The extensive renovation entailed structural and seismic retrofit of the Spanish Colonial building, a broadening and lengthening of the stage and incorporation of accessory and support functions to service full scale performances for theater, dance and music.

Colorado based UDR Inc, called upon Terra-Petra environment engineering in 2011 to work with the Bernards (a UDR contractor) in-house design team on Pacific Park, a $135-million shopping center and residential (mixed-use) development in Huntington Beach, California. At the onset, Bernards was faced with an unusual challenge; how to embrace the city’s proud identity as "Surf City" without descending into surfing kitsch. Terra-Petra was tasked to make sure that challenge was met, and it was.

Details about the status of this project has been reported on Terra-Petra's web and other media sites over the years, including the “a Terra-Petra photographic journal” of the Phase I Borrow Soils excavation for the Pacific City project in 2014 – courtesy of David L. Lucero. Terra-Petra is extremely proud of this project and what this development has become today.

The project – which was designed by MVE & Partners – is currently rising from a 17-acre site at 21002 Pacific Coast Highway. Plans call for the construction of six low-rise structures arranged in a crescent shape. Each building will consist of four levels of wood-frame construction above a concrete podium and an underground parking garage. Bernards is targeting either LEED Gold or Silver certification for the project.

In total, the development will create 516 residential units, as well as a 12,000-square foot amenity center featuring a swimming pool, a gym and an entertainment center. The amenity center will also abut a public park.

The residential community – which is being developed Colorado-based UDR, Inc. – is one component of the larger Pacific City complex, which spans 31 acres on a former oil field near the Huntington Beach Pier. An official website states that Pacific City's retail center will include over 190,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, office space and a 400-key hotel.

For further details about our work with Bernards and the Pacific City project in Huntington Beach, California, please contact Justin Conaway

Environmental engineering firm, Terra-Petra, is currently working with close to 42% of the top 50 construction projects in the Los Angeles area—as listed by the Los Angeles Business Journal in the publication’s new (2015) Book of Lists.

Los Angeles, CA (September 22, 2015) —Terra-Petra, a national environmental engineering headquartered in Downtown Los Angeles has announced that the firm is currenly working with 24% of the top 50 major construction projects currently underway in Los Angeles County—as listed on the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2015 Book of Lists. This complete collection of data on industry leaders in a variety of industries was researched by the LABJ editorial team of the past year. The top construction projects have been ranked by construction cost and excludes infrastructure projects

According to Justin Conaway, Vice President of Terra-Petra. “Terra-Petra has been fortunate enough to have the diverse service offerings which have allowed us the opportunity to bid on a wide array of these developments. Our customer intimacy strategy allows us to offer a great value to our clients, I truly believe that our close customer/client relationships have differentiated us from our competition and has permitted us to secure many of these contracts.”

Terra-Petra’s involvement with most of the construction projects listed on LABJ’s Top 50 list ranges from methane testing, mitigation design and inspection to building envelope waterproofing consulting and inspection. “Hopefully our recent contributions will help to ensure that each project we work on is safe and successful,” says Kevin Buchanan, Terra-Petra President.

Working with 11 of the top 50 , Terra-Petra is currently supporting three of the top four ranked projects (number 1, 2 and 4) as well as with numbers 14, 16, 21, 25, 27, 41 and 47 and 50. Justin Conaway is also currently working on a bid with one other project on the LABJ list. Read the Top 50 Construction Projects in Los Angeles list here: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3.

“More realistically there are only 28 projects listed that are probably in a methane/methane buffer zone. So to be more accurate we are working on 42% of all potential projects on this list that we could bid on. That is a pretty impressive market share considering all of the local competition,” says Conaway.

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About Terra-Petra

Terra Petra’s expertise includes soil gas characterization, remediation, and in the design and inspection of gas mitigation systems for buildings of all types – including commercial, multiple family, single family, industrial, institutional and retail. We are methane experts and methane gas specialists. Our services include: Methane, Brownfield, Vapor Intrusion, Landfill, Oil Field, Site Closure, Geology/Hydrogeology and Radon as well as full service waterproofing consulting and services. Terra-Petra takes charge of every specific challenge from the very beginning of every project to engineer sustainable system and design cost-effective systems. For more information, visit: www.terra-petra.com.

Nearly two years after commencing environmental work on the Pacific City project in Huntington Beach, California, the site is prepared for further construction. After intensive environmental work to verify the integrity of the on-site oil and water well abandonments, all necessary permits are in place to start constructing the foundation of the approximately 190,000 sq. ft. property. Terra-Petra is proud to have taken part in such a notable development project while contributing to tremendous cost savings for the client.

In order to bring incredible value to the project, Terra-Petra came to a practical remediation plan contradictory to one which may have been reached by blindly conforming to re-abandonment codes and procedures. After a careful review of all information obtained from field explorations and well documents from the DOGGR, Larry Barnes – Terra-Petra’s Senior Petroleum Geologist – determined that a minimally intrusive remediation approach would be sufficient for the site. This approach involved shortening all wells to a depth between 6 and 10 feet below grade, recapping each well head with a circular metal plate, and installing a methane mitigation vent cone at each well head. Rather than disturbing the abandoned wells and replacing all cement plugs with costly drilling expenses, this much more non-intrusive approach was deemed more than adequate for preventing any future leaks and site contamination.

In convincing the governing agencies that is safer to leave the wells relatively undisturbed and proceeding with the aforementioned action plan, Terra-Petra was able to successfully save the client millions of dollars while simultaneously reducing their risks on this sizeable development project. With the combined expertise of the construction team Terra-Petra was able to meet the expedited construction schedule. The client is now in the process of grading the site in preparation for foundation construction. Terra-Petra will be on hand to proceed with the necessary methane gas mitigation measures on the foundation of the site for the safety of future site residents.

[PHOTO: Joe Morelli, Fire Protection Analyst of the HBDF, and Terra-Petra's Larry Barnes consulting near an abandoned oil well trench.]

Terra-Petra is an environmental engineering firm specializing in contaminated soil and groundwater conditions. Our expertise starts with soil gas characterization, remediation, and in the design and inspection of gas mitigation systems for buildings of all types.